Thursday, January 27, 2011

Delightful Reading Kit


With Elizabeth, our oldest, I didn't have a specific curriculum to teach her how to read. I bought a blend-and-word book and some easy readers. We sat through a-e-i-o-u. And at-et-it-ot-ut. And an-en-in-on-un. And on.... and on.... I'm sure she was bored to tears. I was. And I didn't see a lot of progress. She eventually could read words. But she never wanted to. That did finally change when Dad bought her an American Girl series when she turned 7. She read the series in two days and has been a voracious reader ever since.

Along comes Jonathan. He would be 5 soon, and I wanted an actual reading program to follow for him. I looked at several. So many out there! I'm sure I could tweak something for him. Hmmmm. I was very much loving Charlotte Mason's philosophy that I had discovered and was now using for homeschooling. She had a lot to say about teaching a child to read. ~It didn't have to be tedious. ~You could teach them using real literature. There were some programs with CM elements, but nothing that followed her method exactly. So I thought I could write something for my son. It became a longer project than intended. I spent an hour or so a day on it, when I could. Before I finished he had turned 5, so I began the part he needed to start with: letter sounds and letter formation (he formed them in the air and in a pan of rice). That's all we did in the area of reading that year.

The reading plans were about finished before Harrison was born. There was enough content and enough people who had also inquired, as I had, about a Charlotte Mason reading program being available, that I thought I'd send it out to some homeschool publishers and see what happened. The whole project had been bathed in prayer throughout. I received 3 answers back (exciting in itself!). Two gentle "no's" and one "interested". Wow! Harrison was soon born, school was on the back burner, and Simply Charlotte Mason and I began to tweak and add to and pretty up the lessons. "Delightful Reading" emerged and I couldn't be more pleased!

Jonathan at age 6 has now been through the poem "Rain" and loves to read it to anyone who will listen. It's a pleasure to teach him how to read and we look forward to moving ahead to learning an Aesop fable next.

7 comments:

Bethany Learn @fit2bmama said...

Wow, Lanaya! This is wonderful! I just started homeschooling this last year with my kindy-girl Petra. She's five and I bet she would eat your books up :) Now I know another author. I am so proud of you!

Lanaya said...

Thank you, Bethany! I've been following you on your business journey also. You're doing some pretty cool stuff, girl!

jess@stevethompson.us said...

I just read about this on SCM. Thank-you so much for sharing your hard work! It does look delightful, and congratulations on getting published!

Lanaya said...

Thank you, Jess! We are very excited and hope it is a great help to Moms (and Dads)!

Leah said...

Hi Lanaya! I am much intrigued by this wonderful looking program! (I did see it recently on SCM) I am just finishing the Charlotte Mason Companion and revamping our homeschooling routine for our 10 yr. old to be more CM friendly. I also have 3 younger children (4, almost 3, and 1.5) and want to teach reading to them her way. Could you explain to me a bit of how your lessons incorporate phonics, or how I could add phonograms in. Not sure how much of it is necessary?! Thanks. I'm anxious for your reply..when you have time of course!

Lanaya said...

Simply Charlotte Mason answered the question of phonics very well, Leah, at the following link:

http://simplycharlottemason.com/2011/01/19/word-building-and-phonics-teaching-reading-part-4/#more-4226

Let me know if you have more questions!

Anonymous said...

I have been looking at Delightful Reading for a months now. I'm an Australian and I am wonderding whether this will suit us. I want to work for us. It looks lovely!